


In Deep

by swallowthewhale



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 11:43:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17141153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: Iris needs a way into the annual Frost Foundation Holiday Fundraiser to find evidence that it's actually a cover for a criminal organization. She knows just the man.





	In Deep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sandrine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandrine/gifts).



> DCTV Secret Santa Gift for sproutwings on tumblr!

Iris sits at her desk at CCPN, legs crossed and pen tapping steadily against her desk as she glares at her computer screen. On the screen is the announcement for the annual Frost Foundation Holiday Fundraiser and propped up against the computer is an invitation for said fundraiser. It’s not addressed to Iris, of course, but to Cecile Horton, Iris’ Dad’s girlfriend and Central City District Attorney. It’s a bold move, to invite the DA to what Iris suspects to be a charitable cover for Central City’s largest criminal network, but a brilliant one, she has to admit. But while Cecile would happily bring Iris as a plus one if asked, Iris knows that she’ll have to find another way in if she wants to uncover anything about the crimes behind the charity. No one will let anything slip in front of the DA and a CCPN reporter. Sighing and rolling out her neck, Iris quickly sends out a text and walks down the street to Jitters. 

Iris waits with her drink in a booth, working out her pitch and trying to convince herself, again, that this is the best option. She sees her contact walk through the door before he sees her and she straightens, self-consciously fixing her hair. 

“West,” he says, sliding into the booth across from her. 

Iris slides his coffee over. “Snart.”

“So what’s so urgent?” He drawls, sipping his drink. 

“The Frost Foundation party,” Iris says bluntly. “Can you get me in?”

Leonard leans back, sharp eyes examining her face. “The Frost party,” he says slowly. “Now why would a reporter like you be interested in something like that?”

Iris nearly rolls her eyes. He knows damn well why she’s interested in the Frost Foundation. “Maybe I just like a good cause,” she says. 

Leonard smirks. “Then I’m sure you have plenty of ways of getting in without me.”

“Well,” Iris says, leaving forward, “I want to get in under the radar. No one can know who I am or why I’m there.”

Leonard leans in too and Iris is suddenly short of breath at his proximity. “And why’s that?”

“Leonard Snart, you know as well as anyone that the Frost charity is a front for the biggest criminal operation in town,” Iris hisses. “Don’t tell me they haven’t tried to recruit you.”

“As a matter of fact,” Leonard drawls, wrapping his long fingers around his mug and leaning back, looking amused, “they have. Not so much my style.” He tilts his head, thinking. “But this will cost you, West.”

Iris sighs, feigning irritation but feeling gleeful. Whatever the cost, it will be worth it to take down the Frosts. 

Leonard picks Iris up at 7:30 Friday evening in a sleek black car that’s clearly not his. Iris smooths down her black coat as she slides into the passenger side.

“Do I even want to know where you got this?” Iris asks wryly. 

Leonard grins. “Don’t worry, West. I wouldn’t bring you on a job to oust criminals in an illegal car.”

Iris remains unconvinced but doesn’t press him, and when they get to the Frost mansion, lets him help her out before handing the car keys to the valet. She rests her hand on Leonard’s elbow and they step into the party.

Faced now with reality, Iris isn’t sure what exactly she expected. The lobby is decked out elegantly in red and green with a twinkling Christmas tree in the center of the hall. A man in a suit takes their jackets and Iris is too busy examining the photos on the walls to notice Leonard do a double take at her silky red dress. There’s quite a crowd there already, and a waitress immediately offers them champagne as they enter the group clustered in the living room. Leonard bends down to whisper in her ear. Iris hopes he doesn’t feel her shiver.

“That’s Frost,” he whispers. “Technically the successor, but she basically runs everything now.”

Iris spots her across the room, accepting a glass from a dark skinned man and offering him a genuine, if small, smile.

“Frost’s right-hand man,” Leonard continues. “A literal genius in engineering. He made my gun.”

Iris raises a brow and examines the couple, both beautiful and cold in navy blue. The man has long hair pulled back into a bun and his hard gaze only softens when he looks at Frost, who looks as sharp and unbreakable as the diamonds glittering at her neck. Iris watches them speak softly to one another before they separate and make their way in opposite directions, engaging guests along the way.

Leonard takes Iris’ elbow and leads them out of Cisco’s path. “They’re a dynamic duo for sure,” he says. “You didn’t hear this from me, but they might be better known as Central City’s most famous meta criminals.”

Iris gapes at him for one short moment before snapping her mouth shut and hiding her shock behind her champagne glass. “I don’t know why I’m surprised,” she mutters. “I guess I didn’t think the heads of a crime syndicate would lower themselves to grunt work.”

“Only important grunt work,” Leonard comments, “to which their powers are well-suited.”

Iris shrugs. “Let’s figure out how to get into the office.”

Leonard gives her a tiny bow. “After you.”

Iris sneaks them through the room by pretending to chat and schmooze, nibbling on food from the servers’ platters as they went. Leonard kept his hand on the small of Iris’ back, a distraction that Iris worked very hard to ignore, focusing instead on the security, dressed to match the guests but obvious with their stern expressions, and their hosts, who were still working around the room in opposite directions. Once they get out of the room, Iris relaxes a little. She takes note of each room they pass down the hallway, as Leonard leads her straight to an office with a beautiful mahogany desk and elegant decor. Leonard closes the door behind them and lounges in the chair as Iris snoops through the papers in the drawers.

She takes photos on her phone of anything interesting, uploading them immediately to the cloud, and moves on to a locked drawer, picking it with lock picks disguised as hair pins. Leonard’s eyebrows go up, but he doesn’t snark at her for a cop’s daughter knowing how to pick a lock. Leonard had taught her, after all.

The papers in the locked drawer are exactly what Iris was looking for, and after she carefully replaces them, she sweeps through the rest of the room, finding only blueprints for interesting but foreign devices and notes in what is obviously Frost’s tidy handwriting about finances. 

“All done?” Leonard asks, still lounging in the chair, when Iris straightens, hands on her hips.

Iris nods absently, trying to pinpoint the feeling that she was forgetting something.

Leonard holds up her lock picks. “Missing something?”

Iris glares at him as he saunters up to tuck them gently back into her hair. Her scowl falters a bit at the softness in his gaze and she turns away. “Let’s go, Snart.” It doesn’t come out as harsh as she means fort it to.

He follows her back down the hall, but he spots the security guard heading their way a fraction of a second before Iris does, and Iris doesn’t even have time to say his name before she’s pressed against the wall with his hands on her hips.

“Just go along with it,” he breathes and then Iris is being kissed.

All worries of getting caught and potentially murdered fly out of Iris’ head as she sinks into the kiss. Her mouth opens and his hand is on the back of her neck, tilting her head back, and by the time they break away, the guard is long gone.

“I think it’s all clear,” Leonard says, smirking and stealing another kiss before drawing Iris down the hall back to the party.

Iris takes the time as she follows him to both examine the silhouette of his face and also her life choices. Does she really want to get involved with a criminal? Does she really have a choice? She’s already pretty involved.

Leonard sweeps her into the room and they pretend to mingle and enjoy the party until they can sneak out. Leonard drives Iris home in silence and he insists on walking her up to her door, hands in his pockets while Iris fishes her keys out of her bag.

“Well,” Iris says.

“I’m sorry,” Leonard says at the same time. 

Iris could swear he’s blushing. 

“If I made you uncomfortable. You know.”

Iris does know, but she doesn’t say anything.

“It’s the best I could think of on short notice.” Leonard hunches a little. “I, ah-”

“It’s okay,” Iris interrupts. She smiles slyly. “I might even be willing to use it as a cover again.”

Leonard’s eyes snap up to meet hers, piercing until he seems to find whatever he was looking for. He grins. “Okay then, it’s a date.”

Iris leans up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for the in, Snart.”

Leonard tips an imaginary hat, “See you around, West.”

He saunters down to his car, and Iris watches him go, waiting until he’s driven away to pull out her phone and text her contact. _Got any ins with the_ _jitters on main?_

It’s a while before Iris’ phone buzzes; she’s already curled up on her couch in her pajamas, looking through the documents she’d gotten from the party.

_I think I might._


End file.
